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Stephen Harper’s Mali strategy lacks clarity, reflects confusion

Canada's approach to the conflict in Mali lacks clear goals and displays no understanding of the region.

Maj.-Gen. Jonathan Vance appears as a witness at a House of Commons standing committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)

By Hon. John McKay, P.C., M.P.

Wed., Feb. 6, 2013

Parliamentarians got their first public glimpse of the government’s thinking on Mali last week with a formal briefing by officials from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and National Defence. It was instructive but possibly not in the way that the Harper government intended.

When asked about Canada’s military goal, Major-General Jonathan Vance replied that it was to support France. But what are France’s goals? That country has a long history in the region dating back to the colonial era and has specific national interests that it is pursuing. If we are going to hitch our wagon to France’s let’s hope that our goals are in line with theirs.

It would have been useful had the government stated its goals and had the discipline to stick to them. The Islamist jihad across the Sahel has to be contained. It will likely never be defeated, but its ability to inflict damage beyond the environs of the Sahel could be limited with swift and effective action. Therefore, it is in Canada’s security interests to support the French and Malian forces as they retake towns and villages in northern Mali.

Resist the temptation to be too ambitious. Mali is a mess. It became a democracy in 1991 but last year experienced a military coup and a counter coup. The shadowy Captain Amadou Sanogo, the former self-appointed chairman of the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, led the coup and commands an army that is poorly trained, that lacks discipline and that is prone to extra-judicial killings. The Tuareg people of the north don’t recognize Bamako’s authority and at the first available opportunity will declare independence. They are a fierce Berber tribe who are well-armed thanks to the post-Gadhafi dispersal of Libya’s armaments. Having joined and then separated from the jihadists, some now support the French, but for how long is anyone’s guess.

The fundamentalist Islamic concept of time is not well understood by the West. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a fundamentalist movement based upon a 7th century interpretation of Islam. The destruction of religious sites in and around Tombouctou and gratuitous amputations for minor infractions reflect a poorly educated and closed minded religious viewpoint. They consider democracy to be anti-Islamic. These warriors fight to die while ours fight to go home. It should be easy for a 21st century military to defeat a 7th century mentality, but it is not. If you’re on Allah’s side, the thinking goes, you never lose. Therefore this month’s or next year’s battlefield setback will be redeemed someday. We in the West however respond to short-term time pressure. Our governments and our peoples will not support a long-term engagement and the AQIM know it.

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In evaluating the government’s approach, we must consider three principles.

First, the government should state its goal and limit its intervention to that goal. But we have yet to hear our government’s goal. Either Prime Minister Harper doesn’t know what it is or we have adopted France’s goals by default.

Second, the government must resist the temptation to overreach. The announcement of $13 million from CIDA is instructive. Putting aside whether this is actually new money or merely re-profiled funding, why would you contribute aid to humanitarian initiatives (however worthy) while other nations contribute to African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA)? Surely at this stage stabilizing security is the primary goal and handing it off to the African authorities as soon as possible is the priority. Humanitarian relief is an important secondary goal but can only become a primary goal once security has been established.

Third, the government must seek to understand the mentality of the enemy. Time is their luxury, not ours. The operation should limit its aspirations to containing in as small a space as possible these murderous thugs and turning the operation over to the African authorities as soon as possible. Fund, train and develop African capability now.

The confusion exhibited by the Harper government is a direct result of the prime minister’s decisions to pull out of Africa, turn his back on the UN, and degrade our diplomatic capacity. The chickens are coming home to roost. Little clarity and a lot of confusion do not instill confidence.

Hon. John McKay, P.C. is the M.P. for Scarborough-Guildwood and the Liberal critic for defence.

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